Surprise in the Vatican: the Pope received one of his greatest adversaries, Cardinal Raymond Burke

The Pope met this Friday in the Vatican your worst opponent in the Curia, the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has faced it since the beginning of his pontificate, ten years ago.

The news had a strong impact, because Francis applied severe measures against him in mid-November and since then tensions between conservatives and traditionalists They do not stop growing, also stimulated by the heated controversy due to the pontifical document which authorized the blessing of homosexual couples, but underlining that this does not mean a fundamental change in the usual position of the Church, which rejects marriage between people of the same sex. .

In a meeting with the heads of the departments of the Roman Curia last month, Francis told them he had decided to apply sanctions against Cardinal Burke.

He took away the so-called Cardinal Targa, which is the salary that cardinals receive, around 5 thousand euros a month. And it also prevented him from free use of the luxury apartment assigned by the Vatican to the American cardinal. If Burke wants to keep having fun, you will have to pay rentwhich is around 10 thousand euros per month.

It is not remembered that a modern Pope has decided to apply sanctions of this type to one of his – presumably – eminent collaborators.

secret meeting

Nothing was known about the meeting. To the newspaper’s Vatican correspondent The messengerFranca Giansoldati, who called him by telephone and was the first to break the news, Cardinal Burke limited himself to confirming the meeting. He added: “I don’t want to comment.”

The common opinion of Vatican experts regarding the meeting, which was the first scheduled for the morning on the agenda of the papal audiences, is that the conversation was certainly complex and frank.

Burke, famous canonist, former head of the Apostolic Signatura and “chaplain” of the Order of Malta. He has challenged the pontiff several times in these ten yearsespecially in his theological orientations, which according to the North American cardinal clash with doctrinal traditions.

Following the two Synods on the Family in 2014-2015, Cardinal Burke criticized guidelines that paved the way for civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to receive a path to communion to again receive the sacraments and enter into a second religious marriage.

Controversy is currently underway over the initiative document of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, chaired by the Argentine Cardinal “Tucho” Fernández. which effectively cancels previous procedures that prohibited any form of blessing of homosexual relationships.

Burke strongly opposed this document. which authorizes the blessing of two people of the same sex but without it being confused with Catholic marriage.

In the Church, a global recount of the positions of the episcopal conferences and of the individual positions for or against the novelty of the pontifical document is currently underway.

Support for Donald Trump

Cardinal Burke is one of the protagonists of the mainstream traditionalist and conservative current of the North American church, which among other things supports the US Republican Party. He is one of the most active and supports the re-election of Donald Trump. At the same time he is one of the critics of the Democrats, accused of defending abortion. Including President Joe Biden.

Biden and other Catholic Democrats argue that they do not defend abortion but rather a law passed by Congress that authorizes it.

There is no shortage of those in the Vatican who comment on this Pope’s sanctions against Burke may cost too much. The cardinal is supported by multimillionaire groups who every year donate Peter’s Pence, a very important pontifical fund because it brings millions into the fragile coffers of the Vatican.

Burke is also the founder of a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe which welcomes numerous pilgrims and whose strength is measured in over two hundred million dollars.

It’s not money the cardinal is missing. But the Pope’s anger against him was unleashed after a recent conference by the cardinal in which, illustrating what he considers attacks on the good theological doctrines of the Church, Burke concluded that it is necessary to pray much and intensely for Francis, who is putting the reigning Church is put to a severe test.